reviews

​Matt Campbell (from the album The Man with Everything available on The Chicago Talking Machine Company Records)Matt Campbell delivers his country with a slight dose of humor. Not as a novelty as his performance relies on campy humor to be the bulk of the entertainment, but in a subtle and clever way within his word-play and storytelling. BR549 has done it as has Robbie Fulks… a humorous vision within the narrative capable of making you crack a smile that doesn’t stray from respecting the musician or the song. Campbell is as much storyteller as traveling troubadour, and a story, whether it be lecture, sermon or TedTalk always resonates if some humor is involved. The Man with Everything kicks off on first track “The Night That I Found Jesus (Down at Robert’s Western World)”, a funny tale that references a classic Nashville venue, country music heavyweights, and drinking a beer with a new friend.

“Christmas in Nashville” is a shuffling holiday number, an ode to a non-musical Nashville in Indiana that decorates The Man with Everything. “It’s Ours” is the love song of the bunch, a nod to making a home with what little you may have. Campbell also covers the Dylan classic “Simple Twist of Fate” with little deviation from what you may know, aside from slight atmospheric pedal steel played throughout, and it’s great. Nashville has never been a place void of a surplus of choice musicians, and this album proves that. Matt Campbell reached out to some regular band-mates and some Nashville session players, the result is a top-notch outfit that helps bring Campbell’s stories and songs to life. (by Bryant Liggett)